Some hard truths about starting a field

Yeah, I've been leaning towards opening up a field around my area for a while now. Having run a marketing agency for the past 10 years I know the business side of what sort of hoops to jump through as far as insurance/location, cash flow, employees etc. Problem for me right now is finding suitable property that is not only close to town but that can be permitted for res/commercial...it's proving to be quite the challenge.

I have this little saying posted next to my monitor for those days you feel like pulling your hair out...I've told it to a lot of other small business owners over the years and it seems to help get you through the crazy days...

It reads...

'There is great power in persistence.
The race is not always onw by the fastest.
The game is not won by the strongest.
Winners are those who keep on keeping on, who refuse to give up.'

I gave up in November and am selling everything to get out of my site. Through our market research, one of our big "hooks" was going to be church youth groups. The heads of these groups talk a great game up front, but are not there in execution. You may get them out once or twice, but that will be it. And if you give them info to pass on to the kids - good luck getting it in their hands. Too busy planning that 1 big church ski trip I guess.
I do still have some good netting and some custom guns if anyone is interested. PM me.

I am in the process of opening my own feild and i do have to agree with everything said in here but on the other hand it is not THAT hard to make it happen. I do plan on still holding my full time job as well and run my feild. I have owned and ran a Sound company for over 12 years now and it has done well for me and at times supported me 100% but just like any other small buess you can't rely on it fully untill all your startup is gone and everything is looking good. and even than you will have your ups and downs. thats buess and you will have this in the rest or in the portable toilet it doesn't matter what your selling times get slow and rough. its having a plan on what to do when this happens that matters.

To present and future field owners alike; In order to fully personally protect yourself from a lawsuit, try following this basic plan.

1) Form a Corporation - NOT a Sole Proprietor, Partnership, LLC, or anything of lesser status than a CORP or S-Corp.

2) Use the waiver the insurance agency the field is bound under issued you. Do not spend more money on a private attorney for the field waiver.

3) DO NOT EVER break the bond of trust between the corporation and the shareholder (you) by using corporate money for ANY personal expenditure; including the cell phone the company pays for but you send personal texts from. This will prove a breach of protocol from which you were personally protected as a shareholder of the corporation and will allow a judge to unveil you as personally liable for corporate liabilities.

4) Do not ever allow the corporation to sit on large sums of money. Pay salaries and reduce the income of the company to nearly zero every year, through improvements and or salary. THAT MEANS REPAY THE SHAREHOLDER (YOU)! And or pay yourself and employees a higher salary.

5) Know that when a person files suit against the corporation that the company is first protected by the insurance binder the company pays for. That means the insurance company fights for the company (as long as negligence was not the issue - that means a tight management/leadership program must be implemented; bottom line - don't let teenagers ruin your business by texting when they should be working.

Know that even if the insurance companies lawyers lose a lawsuit that the insurance payout comes first. The paintball company will only have a certain dollars worth of assets, assuming the company is not sitting on a butt load of cash, and the 5-30 thousand dollars worth (cost value NOT liquidation resale value) of equipment the company holds as assets will not cover even half of the attorney's fees and most lawyers will advise their clients to take the insurance payout and move on.

Know that even if the insurance company pays out and the suit takes all the assets the field has, that the suit stops there and the corporate shareholders are protected from corporate liabilities for as long as no improprieties exist.

Future field owners - pay the extra money and form a corporation.
Current field owners - don't take your past safety record for granted, pay the money and upgrade your legal entity to CORP and then apply for S-corp status.

I got it on I-tunes and have listened to it numerouse times. I really enjoy the teaching style in the Rich Dad's books, they don't tell you what to do, they just inform you about things so you can find what works best for you. Worth the $15+/- investment even if you are just thinking about business.

__________________lPlAlIlNlTlBlAlLlLl
My Anti-Savings Account

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. –Lou Holtz (via-John Maxwell)

Advice for the thread: "how to open a paintball store"NastyShock3r: hey guy's i live in miami i need help to open a paintball store can anyone help or can tell me what i need to do?midstatepaintball: That's easy! Just push on the front door of the store if it says "push", or pull on the door if it says "pull".

If you start a thread it will be better suited for a discussion, because this will probably be a discussion. This thread is more for owners thoughts than it is discussions.

Assuming you are running a "legit business"(ie: using payroll in this case) Short answer is minimum wadge, then go up from there. You have to find your balance between paying enough for good employees and not paying so much it harms growth. (or paying too much to the wrong people)

__________________lPlAlIlNlTlBlAlLlLl
My Anti-Savings Account

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. –Lou Holtz (via-John Maxwell)

Advice for the thread: "how to open a paintball store"NastyShock3r: hey guy's i live in miami i need help to open a paintball store can anyone help or can tell me what i need to do?midstatepaintball: That's easy! Just push on the front door of the store if it says "push", or pull on the door if it says "pull".

Yes they are all truths. The costs are high, and they are climbing every year. Good staff is very hard to find, not to mention retain. The hours are long, some days seem to run together as one. You need to be truly passionate about it, and want to get right over to the field/proshop every day, if you don't feel that way, the paintball business is not for you!

Lots of great info in this thread, thank you. I think another important question is what are the required demographics? how many people need to live in your area for the field to be successful? or whats the field to people ratio? (I.E. one field for every 100,00 People?). Also, because it takes money to play pb what is the optimal average income per household for a field to be successful? Rather technical stuff so if anyone has any idea that would really be helpful. Or if you have some kind of guideline that would be helpful also.

Currently I am in the process of looking to open an indoor field in a small college town. I am doing a ton of research for my start up cost and am planning to look into every cost with a fine tooth comb. I have read many of these post and it seems that the avarage field owner has an outdoor field which means a limited time of operation through out the year. What has been the difference indoor field owners have seen from outdoor fields as far as revenue and any decline through certain parts of the year. To me it seems that an indoor field is the better option so I can be open all year long even in the hot and cold weather. Also what other cost have field owners incured for indoor clean up and maintance to keep the field and building in good condition.

I am plannig on running 2 fields, one rec and one airball. Any info would help...oh yeah, great thread.

The big thing I've seen around here is that indoor fields are busy from November through February and nearly dead once the weather warms up. People want to play paintball outside and will choose to do so once the weather is reasonable.

Well the propblem with our are is that when summer time comes it gets over a 100 degrees out side making it hard to play. I myself don't go out to play when its this hot. The property I'm looking at may have the ability for 1 out door field as well, but I would first want to just start with the indoor fields until things get up and running. The building would cool enough to to play without getting heat stroke.

Also there is no other field in town. So do you think the turn out would be the same?

I have some really good advice for all the potential field owners out there. I want you to treat your new potential customers right and almost give your paint away at cost or just slightly above. This will get your new customers coming in droves and you will be very busy with lots of stuff. You won't have any extra money to make your field better, but you will feel extremely good about giving the people what they want.

The other thing that I would like all of you to do while you are doing your "business plan" or "research" is to do something called a "cash flow statement". Now, go ahead and write that down.

When making your cash flow statement, most people really like to inflate their numbers of people that will be attending their new field. To be really realistic, and safe, I would show (at least to yourself) that you will actually make NO MONEY for the first 6 months or so. What this does, if you actually are able to make money, you can adjust your cash flow statement to ACTUALLY reflect what you did bring in.

At the beginning of any business, (usually for the first year) YOU WILL LOSE MONEY! That's right. Your income doesn't meet your expenses. Most businesses do not turn a profit for more than a year. Say your expenses are $2,000 per month including everything. And say you are taking a loan to fund your glorious field. Now your expenses are $2800 or so. (Field rental, visa bill for your new markers, equipment lease, land lease, labor pay, loan, porta potty fee, paint purchase, Co2 tank rental, gas, vehicle maintenance, wood, misc stuff you never thought of) Your first month you make $0 and $0 for the next 8 months. What does your cash flow look like? Yes, you are down the hole for $22,400. For a reasonable cash income, let's go over realistically what you might bring in. First month (April), $200, 2nd month $600, 3rd month $1,000 4th month $1,000 (summer is here and paintball slows) 5th month, $1,000, 6th month $3,000 7th month $4,000, 8th month $200 (too cold to play)

Your total income for your first 8 months is $11,000

But damn, your expenses would be $22,400

You have just lost $11,400. The only way to stay in business is to have an extra $11,400 just to keep you in business. This is why you must have EXTRA CAPITAL when you start your venture. Always give yourself at least an extra 6 months of EXTRA money to get you started. This is the number one reason most businesses fail. Inadequately Capitalized. write that down

No one talks about this. This is reality. Put that in your business plan. And those numbers are only too real.

1, do not start by giving away paint at cost. It is difficult to raise prices later, and your main demographic for a successful field will not much know or care about the price of paint anyway.

2, If you are running that low of numbers, then you did a very, very, very poor job of analyzing the demographics and deciding where to put your field, or you did a very, very, very poor job of marketing your business before you opened.

The big thing I've seen around here is that indoor fields are busy from November through February and nearly dead once the weather warms up. People want to play paintball outside and will choose to do so once the weather is reasonable.

That depends. Our indoor field has seen much more business this summer compared to last, because our name is finally getting to the public. Granted, we get more business during the cold months and other fields' big events take away from our regulars, but we've managed to find a pretty good balance.

__________________Certified Master Airsmith Airsmithing & 3rd Party Shipping - PM for detailsCan't we all just play Paintball?

ok guys, new field owner and I have a few questions.
First off, I agree with everyone on here that it is not easy at all to get somthing like an indoor field up and going.

I am just trying to get my field up and going. I am in town big warehouse, everything seems just perfect. Untill I get a visit from fire captian and inspector. "I thought I did everything right, and had all my ducks in a row" I guess not!! They are saying Zoning is good here at my warehouse however, building plan for this warehouse is Cold Storage warehouse. Not good for customers that come in. They will not let me open, they are saying I have to

Change of use/occupancy..... Change it to A3.... hundereds of thousands of dollars that needs to spent.

Any one out there have any idea how I could pretty much get around this?
Keep my current occupancy?
What has everyone ran into opening up indoor.?